Allmusic.com’s blog is doing vintage music-related ads. A true classic: this ad for Casio keyboards. Grab an MT-100 and some hair product, hit the NYC subway, crank your volume, and pick up trashy 80s women! The NYPD will nod in approval. Wow, now I know how to supplement my income.
Thanks to Zach Steiner for this one!
Just don’t circuit bend that MT-100 — then you might run afoul of the policeman.
After several minutes of staring at this ad and trying to come up with a worthy comment, I humbly admit defeat.
Casio ad 1, Keith 0.
Why, oh why was I born in 1988….i miss all the fun.
The girl in yellow has such a strong Clockwork Orange thing going on…
well, you have to admit that casio did succeed in bringing budget keyboard performers to the nyc subway system.
One must remember that every decade's fashion looks pathetic 25 years out. This decade's turn will come. Think flesh colored spandex tights with a wasteline just above the bumcrack while obesity is at an all time high. The eighties look will come out pretty good compared to this decade's in fifty years, IMO.
Music may be, may be, a different story.
lol..that can't be NY..everybody's smiling, even the old lady behind the two girls…what??
all in all i think this ad captures the excitement of what those keyboards were like back then. they had all these patterns that let you explore a wide range of music – i dont think home keyboards in the previous generation were as thorough in cultural diversity.
Oddly enough, I was on the NYC subway yesterday and the conductor made an announcement that "playing musical instruments through amplifiers is not allowed." Now, technically, those are *built-in* speakers…
And Stephen, yeah, totally Clockwork Orange chic.
This pic could have been taken two weeks ago at the Bedford Ave. "L" stop.
Andrew Stone: you don't have to move back and forth in time for fashion to look pathetic (as you prove yourself by commenting on how today's fashions will look in 50 years, without actually needing to wait 50 years to make the observation). Most people dress in a relatively neutral way, though, no matter what decade it is, so I think the mini-Madonnas in the above ad are fair game for a healthy round of ridicule.
Mr. Tunes: your comment is not meant to be facetious? I'm not passing judgement, I just want to make sure I'm reading you right…
THE 80'S WERE CRAZY!
"ITUNES, EAT YOUR HEART OUT"
-Sound Beast Digital Music
http://WWW.SOUNDBEAST.NET http://WWW.SOUNDBEAST.NET http://WWW.SOUNDBEAST.NET http://WWW.SOUNDBEAST.NET
fashinn' aside…
i think the 80's had to have been the musical peak in contemporary american history…analogous heaven, the keyboards! nobodies being somebodies with overly melodramatic music, but it certainly hit the spot…the era of the drum machine, man…phil collins, herbie hancock, depeche! nin! maybe a little afx? salt n peppa?..come on..that little keyboard the guy's playing in that urine stained subway train, it's a keyboard we all want..haha!
k1Ru — right on, man. Glad *someone* said it. 🙂
No need to get caught up in nostalgia, but there was some great musical and cultural stuff happening in the 80s … those who fail to learn from history are doomed not to repeat its greatest parties.
If you need to know how to play your new Casio keyboard, here's some instructions! I found this tape in a junk store in Vermont last year…good stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTWJKfqsEMs
no keith – i actually learned a lot about all the different types of sounds and rhythms from those keyboards. i was a little kid back then- you had the rhumba to disco and beyond lol. the one in the ad is more basic than the ones i'm thinking of but same idea. and gotta love that cop!
'dude', this looks like portland, oregon on any given night. spandex included.
I was there in the 80's and that's exactly how it was for me! Too bad if you all missed out on it.
Great one…I've just bought one few months ago in pawnshop for about 17EUR 🙂
Yikes! I remember when that ad ran. At least the keyboard player is getting the girls for once. Or maybe I'm the only one who had that problem…
[…] than the speed of light. Could I possibly be listening to voice samples from a mid-80’s Casio keyboard? Track 2, “Lovesick (Once Again)” is more lively and provokes the listener to edge closer to […]